Reply #25: a spade is a shovel, but I've never combined it with work before

[hfojvt]

No reason why you can't. I believe in gardening, it is a way to prepare the soil. You dig up the sod with a spade and chop it up, and then later plant your garden in that prepared soil.

However, "spade" is also a very well known ethnic slur towards black people. Not sure about the origin, but it is not connected to this common phrase, according to wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_call_a_spade_a_spade

spadework is defined here as "prepatory work"

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/spadework

Using it there was probably not meant as an ethnic slur, but also probably not advisable. Which may have been the cause of the stuttering as the person talking realised they'd just verbally stepped in some dog pooh and lost their train of thought.